Election 2016: David Feeney blames 'maelstrom of events' for forgetting $2.3 million home

By James Massola

Labor leader Bill Shorten has rebuked his factional ally David Feeney for his failure to declare a $2.3 million property on his register of members interests.

Labor frontbencher David Feeney blames a "maelstrom of events" for failing to declare ownership of a $2.3 million property for nearly three years, while dodging questions about whether he would stop negatively gearing it.

As the Coalition and the Greens step up their attack on the Labor MP, Fairfax Media can reveal Mr Feeney purchased his other negatively geared investment property from disgraced former Health Services Union official Kathy Jackson and her now ex-husband Jeff.

The investment property in the Melbourne suburb of Seddon is declared on Mr Feeney's Register of Members Interests - unlike the $2.31 million investment property in Northcote, as Fairfax Media first reported on Tuesday.

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Labor MP David Feeney said the US has unnerved its allies.

Photo: Brendan Esposito

Documents recording the sale show Mr Feeney and his wife purchased the property for $380,000 in 2004 from Neranto No.10 Pty Ltd, a company that Mr and Mrs Jackson were owners and directors of from 1994 to 2008 and which the trade union royal commission was told Mr Jackson used to receive payments for "industrial services" to the HSU.

The documents also reveal that Opposition Leader Bill Shorten's first wife, Debbie Beale, served as witness on the sale documents for Mr Feeney and his wife.

Fairfax Media does not allege Mr Feeney has acted inappropriately.

Mr Feeney told ABC radio on Wednesday that he had written to request his Register of Members Interests be updated and insisted the assertion he had been dishonest was "nonsense".

"I've racked my mind about how this omission came to be, I can only put it down to the fact that I was elected in September in 2013 and we bought the property in December of 2013, in that maelstrom of events I failed to update my register," he said.

He did not explain why he had updated his register twice in the 44th Parliament but did not declare the property and pointed out former prime minister Tony Abbott had once failed to update the register about changes to his mortgage.

"I'm not saying it's an excuse, I'm merely making the point that this is something that does occur."

As Labor promises to end negative gearing on existing properties if it is elected - a policy that would grandfather arrangements for those currently negatively geared such as Mr Feeney - the MP would not say if he would stop the practice.

"If your point is that I'm campaigning against my own economic interest, that's true," he said.

"Our intention is to make our home in Northcote our family home, when it becomes our principal residence it ceases to be an investment property."

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said Mr Feeney had admitted a mistake and would correct it, but "the more important point is that this exposes Labor's hypocrisy".

"Under their policy on negative gearing, all these current Labor MPs who are currently negatively gearing their investment property will be able to continue to do so, while they are taking that opportunity to get ahead away from mum and dad investors around Australia," he said.

"Labor's policy will not only drive down the value of existing properties and push up the cost of rents, it will stop families from leveraging their home and their existing income into investing in income producing or appreciating assets like a small business, shares, a commercial property or indeed an existing residential investment property."

Greens MP Adam Bandt, who holds the neighbouring seat of Melbourne where Mr Feeney actually lives in a luxury $2.8 million apartment, said the revelations meant voters faced a clear choice.

"Voters in Batman need honesty, not David Feeney. Voters in Batman now have a very clear choice: the Greens [candidate] Alex Bhathal is a social worker who lives in the area with her husband and kids, or David Feeney, a factional warlord imposed over the will of the locals who doesn't even live in the seat," he said.

"From time to time politicians might get gifts that they fail to declare...but Australia lost a premier [Barry O'Farrell] over a bottle of wine, what happens to someone who doesn't declare a $2.3 million property?"

James Massola is south-east Asia correspondent, based in Jakarta. He was previously chief political correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, based in Canberra. He has been a Walkley and Quills finalist on three occasions.